First Nighttime Culture Index Rates Nightlife in Six Cities

The first Nighttime Culture Index, a report on the health of nightlife in six cities, was presented on 22 October at the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), which was marking its 30th anniversary. The index is a joint project of ADE and VibeLab, the two organisations behind it, and its abbreviation is NCI.

The collaboration was announced in August. ADE and VibeLab describe the index as a yearly measure of progress rather than a popularity contest. It covers Amsterdam, Lagos, New York, São Paulo, Seoul and Sydney. The researchers analysed more than 12,000 event line-ups, assessed more than 3,000 venues and looked at nearly 30,000 non-music cultural events. They also drew on more than 700 public survey respondents and 67 focus group participants.

Who gets booked is one of the clearest findings. Female and gender-diverse artists made up between 27% and 32% of event line-ups across the six cities. Experts in five of the six cities rated diversity in venue ownership and leadership as poor.

Safety was measured both inside venues and on the streets around them, and the gap was wide. In Lagos, 74% of respondents said they feel safe inside nightlife venues, compared with 20% in the surrounding streets. In São Paulo, 73% feel safe inside, against 11% outside.

Cost is another pressure point. Entry to a nightclub takes about one hour of minimum-wage work in Sydney, nine hours in São Paulo and 25 hours in Lagos. Those figures leave out transport, drinks and other costs, so a night out costs more than the ticket alone.

New York got its own section. The index names cost as the city's main nightlife challenge, pointing to venue hire, permits and the difficulty of sustaining a career in the industry. Even so, 94% of New York respondents agreed there is variety and diversity of scenes, styles, sounds and genres in the city's nightlife. Another 84% agreed that people from diverse communities, races, social classes and other parts of the city take part in nighttime culture.

The city's scores were uneven. New York reached 30 out of 100 on festivals with sustainability commitments and 45 out of 100 on public funding for nighttime culture. It scored 74.5 out of 100 on education pathways into nightlife careers. The report also names block party gatherings and jazz improvisation as two major trends in the city.

Survey respondents in New York rated free or outdoor events in public space almost as highly as clubs when asked which nightlife spaces matter most. That is a result that may surprise anyone who thinks of a city's nights as a line of doors and queues.

For the people who make a night happen, the numbers are personal. A venue hire bill, a permit fee or a minimum-wage shift becomes a decision about whether a bar, a promoter or a DJ can keep going. The index puts those costs next to the crowds, and that pairing is what makes it useful to read.